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I Do the Best I Can

from Planting in a Drought by Tom Smith

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about

Do you recognize Pete Seeger in the first verse?

lyrics

I Do the Best I Can
by Tom Smith (ASCAP)
© 2020 Peabody Hill Publishing (ASCAP)

An old man on a stage, his age belies the power of his song
With a voice that may be shaky, he clearly sings of making right from wrong
Because he’s old he is told, “It’s time to bring your singin’ to an end”
He replies “As long as I can play my banjo I will do the best I can”

I’ll do the best I can
I don’t listen to the noise
I wake up and take a stand
Put my heart into my voice
Stones are smoothed by grains of sand
So even though I’m just one man
I do the best I can


That phoebe in the rafters of my front porch doesn’t stop to take a rest
When she hears that music flowing from her feathered offspring filling up her nest
To and fro, bugs in tow, on a task that never seems to end
I ask her how she does it, and she tells me “I do the best I can”

I do the best I can
I don’t listen to the noise
I don’t claim to understand
I don’t have a choice
But I’ll sing in the end
This is where it all began
That’s why I do the best I can


Sometimes I count myself among the many who are ready to give up
Perhaps we’ve started way too late and the distance is too great to make it up
But step by step, we can get farther from the start than from the end
For the sake of all our children and their children I’ll do the best I can

I’ll do the best I can
I won’t listen to the noise
I’ll wake up and take a stand
And put my heart into my voice
I will get there in the end
I’ll sing it once again
I do the best I can


Just do the best you can
Don’t listen to the noise
Wake up! Take a stand!
Put your heart into your voice
You will get there in the end
Every woman, child and man
Do the best you can

CODA
We will get there in the end
If together hand in hand
We do the best we can

credits

from Planting in a Drought, released March 27, 2020
Tom Smith, vocals and guitar
Isa Burke, fiddle
Sean Staples, mandolin, banjo, and bass

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Tom Smith Boston, Massachusetts

“Folk music is still a living tradition that feeds on new songs that speak of people’s wants, needs, struggles and triumphs. Tom Smith is a man who writes songs that seem like they’ve always been there. There are very few songwriters working today that I would call folksingers, but I would call Tom Smith a true folksinger.” – Dave Palmeter, WUMB-FM Boston ... more

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